It is well known to make mechanical adjustments of members, assemblies and mechanisms in mechanical and electromechanical machines. Such adjustments become difficult when the assembly, member and or mechanism is located on the inside portion of the machine. Accessibility to make adjustments is an important consideration in the design of the assemblies and components for the machine. In an inserting machine, there exists a number of assemblies and components which must be adjusted so that the inserting machine will properly feed, process and insert the enclosures. Access to some of the adjustable components and assemblies in the inserting machine is restricted because of the location of the components or assemblies in relation to the configuration or structure of the machine. This is even more true for small, compact machines, such as tabletop inserting machines, which by their very nature are limited in the space available to make such adjustments.
In a tabletop inserting machine, such as the Pitney Bowes 3100, accessibility for adjustment is a critical consideration during the design of assemblies and components located within the body of the machine. In console inserting machines, such as the Pitney Bowes 8300 Series Inserters, accessibility for adjustment is an important concern, but is not as critical as in tabletop inserting machines because the size of the console machine is much larger.
It is known to make adjustments within the frame of an inserting machine from a position or location external to the inserting machine. Typically, such external adjustments require complicated mechanisms to complete the internal adjustment from an external location on the machine. Generally, the more complicated the mechanism, the more likely problems will develop in making or holding the adjustment. When a problem or failure does occur, the repair to such adjustment mechanisms can be difficult and time consuming. This is particularly true for tabletop inserting machines which provide limited access to the internal structure of the inserting machine.
In U.S. Pat. No. 4,501,417, issued Feb. 26, 1985, to Foster et al. and assigned to the assignee of the present invention, an inserter feeder assembly having external control knobs for adjusting a separator stone and shield subassembly is described. U.S. Pat. No. 4,548,400, issued Oct. 22, 1985 to Foster et al. and assigned to the assignee of the present invention, describes an inserter gauging system having external slots with pointers and control knobs which position the pointers for adjusting the inserter's envelope stops, side guides and stripper fingers. In U.S. Pat. No. 4,728,095, issued Mar. 1, 1988, to Irvine, et al. and assigned to the assignee of the present invention, a separator assembly for a document feeder, including a retarding roller having a plurality of different surfaces which are selectable from an external control knob. These patents are representative of the various ways of making external adjustments on an inserter. While these devices are suitable for their respective application, such external adjustment devices are not suitable for fine tuning adjustments that may be necessary to adjust component spacing, for example spacing between rollers, for handling different types of material.